Idealism in the young, I guess I'm saying, is curiosity as well as goodness trying to express itself.

Common sense in religion is rare, and we are too often trying to be heroic instead of just ordinarily good and kind.

We want no revolution; we want the brotherhood of men. We want men to love one another. We want all men to have what is sufficient for their needs. And now - strange thought - the devil has so maneuvered that the people turn from Him because those who profess Him are clothed in soft raiment and sit at well-spread tables and deny the poor.

We must always aim for the impossible; if we lower our goal, we also diminish our effort.

The biggest mistake sometimes is to play things very safe in this life and end up being moral failures.

The only way to live in any true security is to live so close to the bottom that when you fall you do not have far to drop, you do not have much to lose.

Do not give to the poor expecting to get their gratitude so that you can feel good about yourself. If you do, your giving will be thin and short-lived, and that is not what the poor need; it will only improvish them further. Give only if you have something you must give; give only if you are someone for whom giving is its own reward.